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Casting a ballot – SAG Awards 2013

Much like I did last year, I’ll cast a fictional ballot for many awards (I’m going to restrict myself to the guild awards, as well as the Oscars); like I did last year, a note: I’m not a member of any guild, so this is merely my opinion on the matter. It’s not who I think will receive the award, merely who I think should.

I was lucky enough to see all of the nominees for the Screen Actors Guild Awards (Check the full list at the SAG website), which will be presented on January 18th. I wrote before, 2013 was a wonderful year for film, and we got many amazing performances.

The pain is palpable in Lupita Nyong’o’s performance; it’s not as showy as the comedic performances of June Squibb and Jennifer Lawrence, the other two heavy-hitters of this group, but it’s the one that reaches deeper.

Cate Blanchett’s performance may be the best performance of the year, period. One of the few that gets any close is present in this group of nominees: Sandra Bullock. The rest of the group is solid, but at least one order of magnitude below.

Much like his castmate Lupita Nyong’o, Chiwetel Ejiofor’s performance is painful to look at but impossible to turn away. Similarly to what I thought about the Best Actress race, he is head-and-shoulders more impressive than his fellow (all better than fine) nominees.

There’s not a single note wrong with the acting in 12 Years a Slave, the whole cast is very impressive. The only other nominee that gets close is American Hustle, and while the comedic and energetic register is not easy to achieve either, the range and depth of the emotions in the acting of Steve McQueen’s film is unequaled in 2013.